Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 197
About this tablet
This is a small administrative tablet from the city of Adab, dating to the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE. It records finished woolen garments called 'bardul' — made by weavers — each entry giving the garment's weight in mana (a standard weight unit) and the name of the person, likely a female weaver or overseer, to whom it is charged. The closing note 'returned by hand' marks these goods as having come back into official custody, a routine bookkeeping notation in the highly organized textile workshops that were central to Mesopotamian palace and temple economies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record tracks wool garments produced by weavers. One garment weighing 3 mana (about 1.5 kg) is charged to Mama-ummi; another of the same weight to Aštar; two garments weighing a combined [amount, now broken] to Nin-adgal; and one more weighing 2 1/3 mana, with the rest of that line lost, to Nin-nig. A final note confirms the goods were 'returned by hand' — handed back and checked in by the responsible party, closing out this batch of the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 bardul-garment, (of the) weaver — its weight: 3 mana — (for) Mama-ummi. 1 bardul-garment, (of the) weaver — its weight: 3 mana — (for) Aštar. 2 bardul-garments, (of the) weaver — their weight: 2 [n mana] — (for) Nin-adgal. 1 bardul-garment, (of the) weaver — its weight: 2 1/3 [mana ...] — (for) Nin-nig. Returned by hand.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) bar-dul5 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 3(disz) ma-na ma-ma-um-mi 1(asz@c) bar-dul5 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 3(asz@c) ma-na asz-dar 2(asz@c) bar-dul5 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 2(asz@c) [n ma-na] nin-ad2-gal 1(asz@c) bar-dul5 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 2(asz@c) 1/3(asz@c)#? [...] nin-nig2 szu-a gi4#-a#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 197. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 171 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472497). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.